Sydney Lough Thompson was born in Oxford near Christchurch and enrolled at the Canterbury College School of Art in 1895.. He was financially independent and by 1901 was studying at the Academie Julian in Paris and spent 1902 to 1904 in the seaside artists' colony at Concarneau in Brittany on the west coast of France. Brittany had been a favourite region with artists for over 200 years and Thompson fell in love with Concarneau and would return many times to it becoming one of the first New Zealand-born painters to develop a professional career.

Thompson taught at Canterbury College from 1906 to 1911 then decided to marry and he and his wife Ethel left for Concarneau where they later brought up three children. He and his family would spend their lives living in Concarneau and New Zealand.

Thompson was well-aware of French Post-Impressionist painting especially the work of Cezanne and in Afternoon Market, Concarneau, Brittany even the shadows have colour and the painting is confidently worked up in broad brushstrokes. The women are dressed in traditional, every-day Breton costume of a black dress with white starched lace bonnet and collar.

Pinning down the date of Afternoon Market, Concarneau, Brittany has proven tricky given that Thompson traveled between Concarneau and New Zealand so frequently but stylistically it probably dates from the late 1920s. Thompson is revered to this day in Concarneau and is buried there.

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